章節 27: Grant's Illusion
"Agent 21 here, the area around the cave entrance seems to be clear. Agent 7, conduct the sonar scan." A transparent individual said near a cave. The cave was located underneath a naturally-forming ridge in the forest. The cave's mouth was all covered with moss and overgrown tree roots so it was quite difficult to see from a distance.
Another individual teleported near the cave entrance.
"Agent 7. Conducting the sonar scan." Agent 7 said. The agent then put their hand on the ground.
A small oomph sound could be heard from Agent 7's hand.
"Data collected. Retreat to the base." Agent 21 said. The two agents then disappeared from the vicinity.
--
In the base camp, there was a small table set up. The table was foldable and was brought by one of the servants serving Robert. It was supposed to be a table used for Robert's drinking. Now, the table was used as a makeshift planning table.
Grant Holmes opened a sheet of paper on the table that showed a map of the cave with red dots scattered throughout.
"The detective was correct. It seems they are hiding here." Grant muttered.
"Of course I was correct you dog. What did you expect?" Robert said arrogantly.
Grant ignored Robert. "The sonar magic detected around 60 individuals inside the cave....but there's a problem." He said.
King Adrian was also analyzing the paper. "The cave network branches into different directions and so are the people." He continued.
"That's right, Your Majesty. The cave network is divided into three paths where 20 individuals lay in inside each of those paths." Grant explained.
"There isn't a way to see which red dot is the missing girl?" King Adrian asked.
"No. Sonar magic only tells us the presence of those individuals and not things like their shape or sizes...the magic has not developed that far yet," Grant answered.
"Your agents were capable of besting our warriors when you first met our kind. And now they're capable of such magic. Can't you just use them if they're so strong?" An elven woman who was also at the table asked.
Grant shooked his head. "The intelligence department specializes in ambushes, stealth missions, and the likes. They are not suited for face-to-face combat. Since this is such a narrow cave, the success rate might be lower...I don't think we can be very stealthy inside a cave." Grant answered dejectedly.
King Adrian stroke his chin to think. "We have 30 Vathrian knights and 20 elven warriors...there are 60 enemies that we do not have any intel on their strength level yet..." He muttered.
But the King had a sudden struck of realization. "Wait...I read about this in a story before..." King Adrian was someone who went to the library quite often and read all sorts of book and stories. He started to recall one story where the characters also had to deal with a similar predicament.
"What if we just find a way to draw them out of the cave?" King Adrian said to the group.
Everyone's faces were also struck with surprise.
"My King...that's clever!" Braum was smiling as he was thinking how this is one of the first battle decisions King Adrian have ever made.
"But...how?" Amier, the missing girl's brother, was also there.
"That's the part I'm still figuring out. In the story I read, the enemies didn't have any hostages so the characters set a fire in the cave and fill it with smoke so the enemies were forced to come out to breathe. But since the missing elven girl is present...the smoke might endanger her. Especially considering the fact that they might just leave the cave to fight us but the elven girl might stay inside." King Adrian explained.
Grant had a terrifying smile on his face. "Your Majesty is in luck." He muttered.
"W-what?" King Adrian was stupefied seeing the scary smile on Grant's face.
"What if we just have an illusion of a fire?" Grant said.
Every Vathrians hit the table in unison as they also realized something at the same time. The elven party was utterly confused about what was happening.
"That's right! You specialize in illusion magic, Grant! Can you draw them out that way?" Braum interjected.
Grant just smiled in response.
--
Inside the cave, in one of the networks where the elven girl was located, a group of twenty mercenaries was present. Some of them were guarding the entrance seriously but many of them were just goofing around with one another. Some were even playing some sort of card games.
"How many days has it been? Aren't the elves coming?" One mercenary said.
"Well they should before I lose my composure on this elf." Another mercenary said while hitting a cage.
The elven girl inside the cage was startled before she huddled up in a corner and cried. "Brother Amier....Please rescue me." The elven girl muttered
"Hahahaha. Your brother died. I stabbed him from the back, remember?" A mercenary said.
"No! He's still alive! I know it!" The elven girl shouted from inside the cage.
"You fucking bitch! You don't know how lucky I am the boss did not instruct me to do anything to you yet. Or you would've become my slave already!" The mercenary shouted back.
The elven girl was startled and huddled up in a corner again.
"Why do we have so many people guarding the girl, anyway? Won't it be faster we just march all five thousand of our men to capture the entire elven tribe?" A mercenary asked another.
"The boss said we should utilize what he calls...guerrilla warfare. We draw them out one by one slowly for a few months. This elven girl we kidnapped so we can kill the ones who come rescue her...and capture any elven women in the rescue team as well." Another mercenary answered.
Suddenly, a mercenary started sniffing at the air. "Hey...is something burning? What did I tell you guys about not cooking inside the cave? The smoke is dangerous!" He shouted.
"Wait...I don't think this is a simple cooking fire...." Another mercenary said while looking at the smoke coming from the hall of the cave.
"*cough cough* More smoke is coming!" A mercenary shouted.
"*cough* Too much! *cough* Can't breathe!" Another screamed desperately.
"Run outside the cave! Everyone *cough cough* run outside!" A mercenary ordered everyone to retreat.
"*cough* what about the elven girl? *cough*" A mercenary said while looking at the cage.
"Leave her! The ones who did this may be the elves! We can get them instead!" With that, every mercenary started to run outside the cave.
After a while, it was only the elven girl alone inside the cage.
"Did brother Amier came to rescue me?" She muttered happily.
"But...there was no smoke? I wondered why the humans left...." The elven girl said with a confused face.
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KingSquidward
KingSquidward Final chapter of the day. Doing my assignments now (FUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKK)
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